Experienced Bookkeeper for NDIS providers, aged care and disability support services in Melbourne
NDIS providers and aged care businesses are operating in one of the most heavily regulated funding and employment environments in Australia, and the financial administration consequences of getting it wrong are more serious than in most other industries
Bookkeeping service for NDIS providers, aged care operators & disability support services in Melbourne
Do any of these financial scenarios sound familiar for your business?
- NDIS claims are being lodged through the portal but the income in the accounting software is being recorded from bank deposits rather than from reconciled portal claim data.
- Support worker payroll is being processed under the SCHADS Award but you are not confident the broken shift allowances, sleepover provisions, and travel time entitlements are all being calculated correctly.
- Home Care Package or CHSP funding income is not being recorded at the right time relative to when services were actually delivered and approved.
- Participant fees and Commonwealth subsidies are going into the same income account without the separation you would need to report accurately to funding bodies or to understand the financial performance of the business.
- You engage support workers as contractors to provide flexibility in rostering and you have never had anyone assess whether those arrangements meet the ATO’s definition of employment for super and PAYG purposes.
- Your BAS is being prepared without anyone properly separating the GST treatment across your different funding streams and fee types
If any of these sound like your business, you are not alone and there is a straightforward fix.
A bookkeeper in Melbourne for health care support services
The Complexity of NDIS and Aged Care Operations
- NDIS providers and aged care operators are managing a combination of Commonwealth funding obligations, complex employment legislation under the SCHADS Award, participant service delivery obligations, and ATO compliance requirements that creates a financial administration burden more demanding than almost any other category of small business in Australia.
The SCHADS Award and Payroll Liabilities
- The SCHADS Award, which covers disability support workers, community services workers, and home care employees, is one of the most technically complex modern awards in the Australian system.
- It contains specific provisions for broken shifts including allowances for working a shift that is split into two or more separate parts, sleepover allowances for staff who sleep on client premises, travel time entitlements between client visits, and penalty rates that vary by shift type and time of day in ways that are difficult to apply correctly without specialist payroll knowledge.
- A support worker who works a broken shift on a Saturday evening is entitled to a combination of the Saturday penalty rate, the broken shift allowance, and potentially a travel allowance for movement between client locations, and each of those entitlements must be calculated and paid correctly on every shift for every worker before wage theft legislation creates a liability that extends beyond a payroll error into a legal matter.
NDIS Income Reconciliation and Billing Streams
- NDIS income must be reconciled against participant service agreements and portal claim data rather than recorded from bank deposits.
- Agency-managed participants are billed through the NDIS portal and income is recognised when the NDIA approves and pays the claim.
- Plan-managed participants are invoiced to a registered plan manager and income is recognised on the invoice.
- Self-managed participants are invoiced directly and income is recognised on the invoice date.
- The three billing processes produce income that arrives in the bank on completely different timelines, and recording all three from bank deposits produces a profit and loss statement that has no relationship to when support services were actually delivered or to what the organisation’s NDIS service agreements entitle it to claim.
Aged Care Funding and Income Recognition
- Aged care funding through Commonwealth programs including the Community Home Support Programme and Home Care Packages adds another layer of funding complexity for organisations that operate across both NDIS and aged care.
- CHSP funding is provided as a block grant or output-based funding depending on the service type and the Commonwealth contract.
- Home Care Package funding is managed through an approved provider and accessed by the consumer as their individual package.
- Both require specific income recognition treatment that differs from standard invoice-based billing and must be recorded correctly to produce financial statements that accurately reflect the organisation’s Commonwealth-funded activity.
Why the SCHADS Award requires specialist payroll management
The SCHADS Award is widely regarded as one of the most difficult modern awards to administer correctly in Australia. Its provisions for broken shifts, sleepovers, travel entitlements and penalty rate structures are sufficiently complex that organisations with experienced payroll staff regularly make errors in their application, and the financial consequences of those errors under current wage theft legislation extend beyond administrative penalties into potential criminal liability for deliberate or systematic underpayment.
A support worker who has been underpaid a broken shift allowance on every Saturday shift for two years has accumulated a significant back-pay entitlement that must be corrected in full, including the superannuation that should have been paid on the correct wage.
Payroll under the SCHADS Award is not something that can be managed reliably by a business owner processing payroll as one of many tasks on a busy week. It requires specific knowledge of the award’s provisions applied with complete consistency across every shift for every worker, and it requires that knowledge to be updated following every Fair Work Commission review that affects the award’s rates or conditions.
Matthew manages SCHADS Award payroll for NDIS and aged care providers with the specialist knowledge and consistent attention that this award specifically requires.
What a bookkeeper can manage for a chiropractic practice in Melbourne
In our experience health care support service providers have financial flows that are different to many other business so managing them correctly requires understanding and needs to cover these aspects;
- NDIS claim income reconciliation.
Portal claims are reconciled against participant service agreements for agency-managed participants and income is recognised when claims are approved and paid. Plan-managed and self-managed participant income is recognised on invoice and reconciled against payment receipts. The accounting file reflects actual service delivery rather than bank deposit timing.
- Home Care Package and CHSP income recording.
Commonwealth aged care funding is recorded with the correct income recognition treatment for each funding type, reconciled against approved provider statements and Commonwealth payment advice documents.
- SCHADS Award payroll.
Support workers, community services workers and home care employees are paid at the correct SCHADS Award classification level with broken shift allowances, sleepover provisions, travel time entitlements and penalty rates applied correctly for every shift type. This is one of the most technically demanding payroll functions in Australian small business employment and requires specific knowledge of the SCHADS Award provisions that goes well beyond what a general payroll setup delivers.
- Contractor arrangement assessment.
Support workers engaged as contractors are assessed against the ATO’s employment test. Where the arrangement meets the definition of employment for super and PAYG purposes, the obligations are applied correctly going forward. The organisation is not carrying an undisclosed super liability for contractor arrangements that have never been formally assessed.
- Participant and client fee income separation.
Income from participant contributions, client fees, and Commonwealth subsidies is recorded separately so that the financial position of the business is visible by funding source and reporting to Commonwealth funding bodies and auditors is supported by accurate underlying records.
- Accounts payable management.
Supplier invoices for support materials, transport, consumables and operational costs are entered promptly, coded correctly, and scheduled for payment before they fall overdue.
- BAS preparation and lodgment.
The GST treatment of NDIS and aged care funding is a specific area of the GST Act that requires specialist knowledge. Some NDIS supports are taxable supplies, some are GST-free, and the correct treatment depends on the nature of the support and how it is funded. Matthew applies the correct GST treatment across all funding streams and fee types and prepares the BAS from fully reconciled records. Lodged by a registered BAS agent with the four-week extension on both lodgment and payment.
- Profit and loss reporting.
Revenue reported by funding stream and service type so the organisation’s leadership can understand the financial performance of each program area, the cost of service delivery by support type, and the overall financial sustainability of the business by funding source.
How our bookkeeping service has helped different health care support businesses
- Company that grew from 2 full time employees to 20 within 1 month.
A company can hold a license which allows them to employ staff to go and look after their clients, but paying these staff can be a nightmare if not done right.
This company paid the staff as employees and they used a 3rd party system which auto calculated the award rates but the company decided to pay them above award and had their own rates to use to pay the staff. This was a nightmare and took a whole day to do the payroll.
The 3rd party system was also used to invoice the clients so it was convenient for that reason but a major issue was it required exporting all the timesheets for the staff and manually go through each one to figure out what to pay them. - Another example was a new client that wanted to pay their staff as contractors so they would send their invoices in for us to pay they also had 5 staff start within a week.
A few major issues were the hours weren’t always correct so we had to always match them against the timesheets from a system called Billability, the rates were sometimes wrong and the contractor would always say they hadn’t been paid even know we had the records to prove it.
Sometimes invoices weren’t sent in and were missed so payments were also late, and sometimes they were send in multiple times risking us of double payments this was also a nightmare.
We told the client we need to either send out RCTI Invoices from our end or make them as employees, we decided to use a system called Shiftcare which is an amazing system for invoicing & payment staff.
In shiftcare the hours & rates were calculated automatically and exported to Xero for using in the payrun, the invoicing was also automated and just required an approval from the owner so everything became streamlined using this system. - We had another client who asked me to invoice manually, this took a long time and was risky due to typos so we had to have my employee do the job and we had to check it for errors, but sometimes the owner would send the wrong code or wrong hours and that also caused reinvoicing issues.
A certified and qualified bookkeeper
Working with Clients Needs Bookkeeping means the financial administration of your practice is handled end to end by a registered BAS Agent who understands the specific requirements of a dental business. In practical terms, this covers:
Registered BAS agent and software credentials
Matthew Powell is a registered BAS agent. Verify at tpb.gov.au. Safe harbour protection and the four-week lodgment and payment extension apply to every BAS lodged through a registered agent.
Software: MYOB Diamond Partner, MYOB Certified Consultant, Xero Silver Champion Partner, Xero Advisor Certified, Xero L2 Certified Professional, Xero Payroll Specialist. Also works with QuickBooks and rostering platforms including Deputy and Tanda used in disability and aged care environments
About Matthew Powell, registered BAS agent and bookkeeper
Matthew Powell is the director of Clients Needs Bookkeeping and a registered BAS Agent with more than 15 years of experience working with small and medium businesses across Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula.
He works across MYOB, Xero, and QuickBooks, and has particular depth of experience in health and medical practice bookkeeping, including dental, medical, and allied health clients.
Matthew is known for being accessible, clients regularly comment that he responds quickly, handles problems promptly, and communicates in plain language rather than accounting jargon.
He works with business owners from any industry sector or niche who provide services or sells products. He does your bookkeeping remotely and takes on new clients with the intent of building a long-term relationship rather than processing a transaction.
Bookkeeping Packages start from $150 per month. The first consultation is free.
Read some of our bookkeeping case studies
Below are real life examples from businesses like yours who needed to use a bookkeeper.
Frequently asked questions chiropracters ask before hiring a bookkeeper
What is the GST treatment of NDIS supports?
The GST treatment of NDIS supports changed significantly with the introduction of the NDIS. From 1 July 2018, most NDIS supports provided by registered NDIS providers to NDIS participants are GST-free as disability support. However, supports provided by unregistered providers to self-managed or plan-managed participants may carry different treatment. Accommodation supports and some other service categories also have specific treatment. Matthew assesses the correct GST treatment for each support type and funding arrangement in the organisation.
How does the broken shift allowance work under SCHADS?
A broken shift occurs when a worker’s shift is split into two or more separate periods of work with an unpaid break between them. Under the SCHADS Award, a broken shift allowance is payable in addition to the ordinary hourly rate for each broken shift worked. The allowance amount varies depending on the number of breaks in the shift. This provision is separate from overtime entitlements and applies regardless of how many total hours are worked in the shift.
We use casual support workers who we roster as needed. Are they employees or contractors?
Casual workers who are rostered by the organisation, work under the organisation’s direction, use the organisation’s client relationships and follow the organisation’s procedures are almost certainly employees for SCHADS Award and ATO purposes regardless of how the engagement is described. Casually engaged support workers have specific SCHADS Award entitlements including the casual loading, and super is owed from the first hour worked for eligible workers.
What does bookkeeping cost for an NDIS provider or aged care operator?
Packages start from $150 per month and are structured around the actual services the organisation needs. A sole provider operating as a sole trader with a small client base has different requirements from a registered NDIS provider with multiple support categories, a team of support workers, and Commonwealth aged care contracts.
The first consultation is free and Matthew will give a clear indication of what is involved and what it will cost before any engagement begins.
Ready to get the financial side of your chiropractor practice managed by a bookkeeper?
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You already know there are things in the books that are not right.
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The personal expenses that went through the business account during a tight month are still sitting there.
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The BAS is lodged but you are not entirely sure the figures are accurate.
None of these are unusual, and none of them are unfixable but every month they sit unresolved is another month of compounding risk.
Packages from
$150 per month
Structured around what your business actually needs
Registered & certified bookkeeper
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